I got a brief chance to handle the Motorola Cliq Android phone—no pictures yet, unfortunately—and came away pleasantly surprised. The phone itself is about as tall as an iPhone, but it's definitely thinner than most QWERTY sliders.

Compared to the G1 this thing is svelte, and the keyboard is aligned correctly with the screen so there's no weird jarring going on when you're typing. The addition of the D-Pad, like we noted in the liveblog, is going to be fantastic for gaming/emulation gaming, and works like a D-Pad when navigating the phone as well. Very useful.

The sliding mechanism feels solid and desirable, as in, I want to open and close the thing all day just to hear the sound. The version I saw was white, and the finish was classy without being ostentatious, and definitely not cheap feeling. There's a heft to it, but it's definitely not heavy.

No hands-on photos yet, so you'll have to take another look at the press shots: